Midland County renews deal to provide legal representation for the indigent

By John Kennett jkennett@mdn.net

Published 7:30 am, Friday, October 18, 2013

The Midland County Board of Commissioners has approved an agreement with Michael M. Mishic, P.C., to provide legal representation for indigent parties. Mishic will contract with other lawyers for representation as required by the Michigan Court Rules and Statues.

“Indigent attorney fees are constitutionally required,” said 42nd Circuit Court-Family Division Judge Dorene Allen. “We have six attorneys and it has been a very stable group. The contract is specifically with Michael M. Mishic, who is an attorney in town. ... He makes the determination which attorneys will be in the consortium.”

The agreement requires the county to pay Mishic $250,894 from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2014 to provide indigent legal services for Midland County. The amount is an 8.7 percent increase over last year, but restores the agreement to the same amount as it was in 2010. For the years 2011, 2012, 2013, the amount was reduced to $230,823.

“The county budget had to be cut and part of what we did at the court level was go to our attorneys and say, ‘The county is in dire straits and will you agree to a reduction?’” said Allen.

Before the county had one contract with Mishic, each attorney would contract with the court.

“There used to be separate contracts with each attorney and the management issues were fairly amazing,” said Allen. “Literally, I would go through the contracts and the attorneys varied quite a bit on what they would charge for the same proceeding. This is a different system that we’ve had for about 10 years. It is much better and Mike Mishic has done a very nice job.”

The contract will provide legal representation for neglect and abuse cases, delinquency, mental commitments, guardianship petitions, conservatorships and other matters where the court is required to appoint legal representation.

“Any given day there are probably three or four of those attorneys in our court,” said Michael Wolsh, attorney referee.

Periodically, the court needs additional attorneys, such as when a neglect or abuse case involves multiple children where each child needs representation. In those cases, a flat fee of $750 is paid.